705 observations.

[reffitt20]

This is the start of my second year with the stock coil X-terra 705 and I am starting to get decent with it. I am still not finding very much silver and I am quite confident I am in decent locations. He are some of my thoughts, and questions for the X-perts

Do you run with tracking ground balance on? I have heard someone say it doesn't affect much but after reading the booklet it seems that might not be the truth if the machine locks on and resets

Where should my thresh hold be? I have used mine between 9-12. I read something about you want to barely hear the "hum"? also something else about "if you have it at the right number silver will bark or sound more distinct?"

Do you guys like to manual noise cancel or auto. I always do auto and usually get channel 1 or 2

Sensitivity. I keep mine between 18-23 it gets pretty chatty in some places and I turn it down. Anybody just crank it up and run in coin pattern with any success? Anybody wild enough to run it 25+?

Now my observations

If I get a 38-36 and keep working the ground it will jump between 32,34,36,38 and usually always be a penny

If I get a 38 its almost always a clad dime

I am always chasing these good sounding 40 numbers and go to pin point and it gives me a negative number,,that depresses me because its usually iron then.

I ran a pretty closed pattern till i became more comfortable and then I opened everything except 48 I found 2 Indian head pennies 10 minutes apart.

I feel like I am not setting up my machine right...Before I dig I do my auto noise cancel and get digging,,,,,what else should I be doing checking?

I am not very good at finding nickels for some reason

I am in good places I just think I need to become more educated with my machine.


I know it was a long read but I thankyou for your help and comments in moving me along in my education thanks and good luck digging

 

[Crash67]

I have had mine for 1 week I run factory coin 1, threshold 4, sens around 20 ,tracking on pennies hit at 34 on mine silver dimes 36 38 I have found 2 barbers and 2 mercs 5 wheaties and a Van Buren presidental token in 3 trips out with it

 

[Venner]

I have about 150 hours into mine since getting it last summer. I have three DD coils (5x10" HF coil, 6" LF coil, 15" LF coil), and prefer the LF coils 99% of the time.

Because I live in a glaciated area, the soil is highly variable and much of it mineralized (as low as 5 / 100!) so the auto-tracking feature (always on) and and a DD coil are essential for me. I haven't found auto-tracking to be an issue even when repeatedly sweeping over a target.

I leave my threshold at default, so I hear a low continuous tone.

I keep noise-cancel at the default (0) channel unless I'm experiencing issues, such as chatter or interference. When that occurs, I let the machine auto-choose the new channel.

I run my machine as hot as I can stand, but it depends entirely on the site and soil conditions. First, 95% of the time I run in all-metal mode; after a lot of hunting, you really get a feel for the targets not only by the tone, but how the tone changes when you pass it over certain targets. I.e., if is squeals along the edges of a target, or changes based on the direction of sweep, it is rarely a coin. Coins tend to be rather solid and generally only vary by a bin or so. Or if it bins as iron and occasionally chips higher, it's likely just trash. If it alternates fairly solidly between iron and a good signal (without much squealing), then it might be two close-together targets and it's certainly worth investigating.

I find you lose a lot of intuition running with a pattern mask. Sometimes I will turn on an iron-mask only (bins -8 to 0 and 48 notched out) if there is a lot of iron in the ground, and only very rarely run a coin-only mask (basically everything except 28 - 46 notched out) if I am at an exceptionally trashy area, like a well-used modern campsite.

I typically try to keep the sensitiviy at around 26, although I've pushed it up to 30 a few times. There are some tradeoffs when it is at 28+ -- lots of falsing, especially when hitting the edges of iron trash, but you get a feel for it. (Again, I run in all-metal. If your sensitivity is too high and you're in a coin pattern, you'll have a hard time figuring out which signals are legitimate.). Once I run across a target that sounds promising, I drop it down to 22-24 and sweep again from different angles -- especially if there are other surrounding signals. Even in my very tough soil conditions, I've never really had to drop sensitivty below 20; I've only done that so I could hunt nearer an electric fence a couple of times.

With my 3khz coils, dimes peg between 38 and 42, depending on clad/silver and their orientation in the ground. Quarters are 40-42 (a very solid 42 if flat in the ground), and both halves (clad and silver) I've found were at 46. Pennies are sketchy, coming in anywhere from 28 to 40 depending on the material, soil, and orientation. I had one target jumping all over the place from 26 to 34 that I would have sworn up and down was trash; it turned out to be an 1870 indian head in beautiful condition, so you never know. (There was nothing else in the hole either!)

 

[7centsworth]

I have to ask if you are using headphones? Because that seems like a high threshold if you are using headphones. I usually run around three in the threshold. I learned that if you turn the threshold down a number so that you think it is not loud enough that after 10 minutes detecting your ears will get use to it and then you will hear it fine. I told my buddy this and he did it and now is able to run his threshold lower.
Most of my Indian cents some in in the upper twenties just like some pull tabs. So you want to dig those. I always hunt with the sensitivity over twenty unless it is super trashy. You have to dig those iffy signals to. Some of those have turned out to be good coins with trash in the hole.
Also what is your ground balance numbers. If they are low you may want a dd coil. I run tracking on if it is not real trashy. If it is I auto ground balance.